PITTSBURGH -- Mike Hilton has been a Steelers cornerback for a year and a half.

But even he knows how much Sunday's 17-10 win over New England meant to his team. Yes, indeed, this one was a little sweeter.

"Absolutely," Hilton said post-game. "Everybody knows that's the dragon that everybody wants to slay in the AFC. So this is a big win for us."

Defensively, Pittsburgh arguably played the Patriots as well as anyone since September. The Pats were held to fewer yards in a 34-10 loss at Tennessee in November, but were also without All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski that afternoon. With Gronkowski on Sunday, they went 3-of-10 on third downs and 0-for-3 on red-zone trips.

Gronkowski was held without a catch until the fourth quarter.

"We took Gronk out the game," Hilton said. "We felt good, and like I said our guys up front got a lot of pressure."

Applying some of that heat on Tom Brady was veteran linebacker Vince Williams. Williams was a rookie when Pittsburgh took a 24-point loss on the chin from New England in 2013. Since then, he's suffered four more defeats at the hands of the Patriots, including a crushing AFC championship game loss in Jan. 2017. During the week, he proclaimed Sunday's upcoming kickoff with the Pats as just another game.

Then victory hit, and he admittedly changed his tune. No longer are the Steelers singing the blues.

"This isn't the Super Bowl, this isn't a playoff game. That's what I kept telling everybody," linebacker Vince Williams said. "But I think it was significant because of who it was against. That's what made it more significant."